Pervomaisk mayor suspected of declaring ₴5.3 million in false assets represented the community at an international conference on reconstruction in Warsaw

The mayor of Pervomaisk, Oleh Demchenko, who was served with a notice of suspicion of false declaration, attended the international conference ReBuild Ukraine in Warsaw.

According to the report of the Pervomaisk City Council, the event lasted two days — 13 and 14 November, NikVesti writes.

During the forum, a grant agreement was signed with the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) for the reconstruction of the main water supply system. The project has attracted €4 million in grant funding. The city was personally represented by Mayor Oleh Demchenko.

However, as recently as 22 October, the mayor received a suspicion from the State Bureau of Investigation of declaring false information worth more than 5 million hryvnias. NikVesti found out from the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor's Office that during the court hearing on the choice of a preventive measure, the prosecutor's office asked for bail for Oleh Demchenko to be set at 60,000 hryvnias, which is the maximum under the article he is charged with.

The case is being considered by the Inhulskyi District Court of Mykolaiv. On 29 October, judge Dmytro Hubnytskyi denied the prosecutor's motion and ordered the suspect to appear at the first request. In addition, the court refused to suspend the mayor from work.

In the reasoning part of the ruling, the court notes that the risks highlighted by the prosecutor are not supported by evidence. The court notes that the mayor has been providing explanations to the NACP since December 2024.

That is, he did not avoid contact with the regulatory authorities, but rather explained his actions, which later became the subject of suspicion. The court also saw no evidence that the suspect could influence witnesses. In addition, the judge did not see a connection between the crime and the mayor's tenure.

The State Bureau of Investigation NikVesti added that the court did not ban the mayor from travelling outside Ukraine, his passport was not confiscated, and he has no obligations to the agency.

«He is «a free man» in the status of a suspect,» the SBI added.

NikVesti wrote that Pervomaisk Mayor Oleh Demchenko, elected from the «Opposition Bloc» party, received more than 1 million hryvnias in salary in 2024.

Pervomaisk Mayor's salary

In February 2023, at a session of the Pervomaisk City Council, the majority of votes supported an increase in the amount of bonuses for the mayor, Oleh Demchenko, elected from the «Opposition Bloc». He will now receive a salary of more than four salaries.

Following this decision, Maksym Dyrdin called on his fellow member of the city council, Ali Aliyev, who voted for the increase in the mayor's salary, to resign his mandate. He also sent a deputy appeal to Pervomaisk Mayor Oleh Demchenko to convene a session and cancel the decision to increase the mayor's salary.

In turn, Mayor Oleh Demchenko did not refuse the increase. He told how much he would receive and promised to transfer 25,000 hryvnias to wounded soldiers every month.

Afterwards, MP Maksym Dyrdin said he had received a response from Oleh Demchenko. He is confident that the mayor of Pervomaisk does not want to give up his high salary because he is earning his pension.

In 2023, Oleh Demchenko received 1.7 million hryvnias in salary as mayor of Pervomaisk, an average of 146,800 hryvnias per month.

At the same time, Halyna Davydova, editor-in-chief of «Gard.City», complained about the work of the press service of the Pervomaisk City Council, noting that it does not facilitate the work of journalists. And blogger and administrator of the local telegram channel «Pervomaisk City» Dmytro Ivanytskyi stated that Pervomaisk Mayor Oleh Demchenko had threatened him with physical violence.